Person-centered nursing home care in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden: Why building cross-comparative capacity may help us radically rethink nursing home care and the role of the RN

Citation

Corazzini, K., Meyer, J., McGilton, K., Scales, K., McConnell, E., Anderson, R., ... Ekman, I. (2016). Person-centered nursing home care in the United States, United Kingdom, and Sweden: Why building cross-comparative capacity may help us radically rethink nursing home care and the role of the RN. Nordic Journal of Nursing Research, 36(2), 59-61. DOI: 10.1177/2057158516649145

Abstract

We face a global crisis of care regarding our current and projected capacity to provide dignified, high-quality long-term care to frail elders and their families.1 Healthcare systems in both the United States (US) and across member countries of the European Union (EU) are striving to improve the quality of long-term care by improving the availability and preparation of the professional nursing and assistive personnel workforce,2–5 translating evidence-based geriatric care into practice,6 and aligning care with person-centered care values,7–9 whereby the older adult and his or her family members are full partners in care, determining what and how care is provided. Person-centered care in nursing homes aims to shift the focus of how we make decisions about care to consider the person as a whole, rather than as a set of functional limitations, and to place his or her values and preferences first.8 Advancing person-centered care has been identified as a care priority for long-term care health systems in the majority of developed countries, including the US and member countries of the EU.